The man accused of murdering Mayaro mother Ria Ramlochan and her baby 11 years ago wept yesterday after he was sentenced to hang for the crime.
As tears ran down his cheeks, Anand Baboolal, 40, looked at his family and shook his head as he was led out of the San Fernando Third Assizes by police officers to be taken to death row.
The 12-member jury took about two hours to find him guilty on both counts of murder.
When asked by Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor after she read the death sentence twice to him whether he had anything to say, Baboolal whispered each time, “No ma’am.”
Speaking briefly with reporters outside the court, Ramlochan’s father Krishna Sookoo said the trial brought back sad memories of when they were murdered. While he was happy to get justice after so long, Sookoo said before he walked away, “It have no hangman.”
Baboolal is accused of killing Ramlochan, 26, with whom he shared a common-law relationship and her son, 18-month-old Ishmael Timothy Ragbir, on August 10, 2005 at her Solomon Street, Pierreville, Mayaro home.
He dumped Ramlochan’s body in a latrine and the baby’s body in the Mafeking River.
An autopsy revealed the baby was stabbed and cut more than 14 times about his tiny body while his mother was stabbed three times in the chest and abdomen.
No one witnessed the murders. It was only discovered that the mother and son had been murdered when baby Ishmael’s decomposing body was fished out of the river. Ramlochan’s decomposing body was subsequently found in a latrine pit near their home.
Her foot was protruding from inside the pit. Baboolal was arrested by Insp Alexis Garcia and Sgt Azam Hamid held Baboolal at a camp at Torrib Tabaquite Road, New Grant, a day after the bodies were discovered.
Baboolal gave a statement to officers Garcia and Hamid where he claimed Ramlochan had attacked him with a knife in her bedroom. He claimed they struggled and he got the knife from her and stabbed her by mistake.
Baboolal told the police in the statement that the baby was next to her on the bed.
However, he claimed he blanked out after Ramlochan got stabbed and the next thing he remembered was waking up by his brother.
Baboolal opted not to give evidence at his trial. However, through his attorneys, Rekha Ramjit and Gina Ramjohn, he claimed officer Garcia put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him and his brother if he did not sign the documents.
He said he did not know what was written on the documents because he could not read and write.
